A Chokehold Choice in Italy's South

In Time of Austerity, Steel Plant Blamed for Hundreds of Deaths Is Allowed to Stay Open; Burying an Uncle, Then Going Back to Work

By

Stacy Meichtry

Dec. 7, 2012 7:02 p.m. ET

Vincenzo Vestita suspects furnaces of Ilva SpA's steel factory in the southern town of Taranto gave his uncle lung cancer. Yet, shortly after he buried his uncle last month, Mr. Vestita went back to his own job at the same plant.

"I'm obviously leaving myself exposed," says Mr. Vestita, 35 years old, who maintains machinery at the plant, which belches fumes deemed so dangerous that livestock has been banned from grazing...